02234cam a22002897 4500001000700000003000500007005001700012008004100029100002200070245010700092260006600199490004200265500001800307520087600325530006101201538007201262538003601334690005901370690007501429690013901504690008601643700002101729710004201750830007701792856003801869856003701907w19574NBER20180524135836.0180524s2013 mau||||fs|||| 000 0 eng d1 aClemens, Jeffrey.10aWho Pays for Public Employee Health Costs?h[electronic resource] /cJeffrey Clemens, David M. Cutler. aCambridge, Mass.bNational Bureau of Economic Researchc2013.1 aNBER working paper seriesvno. w19574 aOctober 2013.3 aWe analyze the incidence of public-employee health benefits. Because these benefits are negotiated through the political process, relevant labor market institutions deviate significantly from the competitive, private-sector benchmark. Empirically, we find that roughly 15 percent of the cost of recent benefit growth was passed onto school district employees through reductions in wages and salaries. Strong teachers' unions were associated with relatively strong linkages between benefit growth and growth in total compensation. We further find that when economic conditions are poor, straining public budgets, benefit growth is more readily shifted back to public employees. Our analysis is consistent with the view that the costs of public workers' benefits are difficult to monitor, contributing to benefit oriented, and often under-funded, compensation schemes. aHardcopy version available to institutional subscribers. aSystem requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files. aMode of access: World Wide Web. 7aH22 - Incidence2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aH74 - State and Local Borrowing2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aH75 - State and Local Government: Health • Education • Welfare • Public Pensions2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aI13 - Health Insurance, Public and Private2Journal of Economic Literature class.1 aCutler, David M.2 aNational Bureau of Economic Research. 0aWorking Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research)vno. w19574.4 uhttp://www.nber.org/papers/w1957441uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w19574